Parmenides · Philosophy
Parmenides’ rigorous deduction of the properties Being must have - ungenerated, imperishable, whole, one, continuous, unmoved, and complete ‘like a well-rounded sphere’ - the first systematic attempt to derive the nature of reality by pure logic from a single premise.
Having argued that ‘what is, is’ and that ‘what is not’ is impossible, Parmenides did something no philosopher had done before: he deduced, step by logical step, the complete set of properties that Being must have. These are the ‘signs’ (sēmata) along the Way of Truth - the marks by which true Being is known. And every single one of them follows from the one premise that not-being cannot be. Parmenides thus presents the first fully worked-out example in history of deriving the nature of reality by pure reason, with the relentless rigour of a mathematical proof.
The signs are these. Being is ungenerated - it never came to be, for it could only have arisen from not-being, and there is no not-being to arise from. It is imperishable - it can never cease, for it could only pass into not-being, and there is none. It is one and continuous - undivided, with no gaps, for any gap would be a stretch of not-being. It is unmoved and changeless - for all motion and change require not-being. It is complete and perfect - lacking nothing, ‘like the mass of a well-rounded sphere, equally balanced from the centre in every direction.’ And it is timeless - ‘it was not, nor shall be, but is, now, all at once’ - for past and future involve was and will-be, which are forms of not-now-being. From a single premise, an entire portrait of reality, deduced with airtight logic, and utterly unlike the world we see.
The most famous and beautiful of Parmenides’ signs is his description of Being as ‘complete on every side, like the mass of a well-rounded sphere, equally poised from the centre in every direction.’ This image has puzzled and inspired readers for millennia. Parmenides is almost certainly not saying that Being is literally a physical ball floating in space - that would require empty space around it, which he denies. The sphere is a symbol of completeness, perfection, and self-sufficiency. A sphere is the most perfect of shapes: equal in every direction from its centre, without favoured points, lacking nothing, complete in itself. Being, Parmenides says, is like this: complete, lacking nothing, perfectly balanced, self-contained, finished. It does not need anything outside itself (there is nothing outside itself); it is not deficient in any respect (any deficiency would be a failure-to-be, a touch of not-being); it is whole, entire, and perfect.
This is the opening of the lesson. The rest — the dialogue, the primary source, and the recall — is in the app.
You learned that Parmenides deduced, by pure logic from the impossibility of not-being, that Being must be ungenerated, imperishable, whole, one, continuous, unmoved, and complete - ‘like the mass of a well-rounded sphere.’ Explain the signs of Being and how he derived them in your own words.
Leads to Benedict de Spinoza.
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